Electric Boat has signed a 25-year-lease that expands its footprint at the Quonset Business Park by 40 percent. The company makes Virginia Class nuclear submarines for the Navy. The Navy recently doubled its order from one sub to two. Steve King, director of the Quonset Development Corporation which negotiated the lease, says the company will use the new space to accommodate the heavier workload.

"It means that we’ll be seeing some minor increase in jobs in the near future. They’re going to grow from about 2700 today to a little over 3,000. And then in the year 2021 or so they’re going to start a major ramp up in employment ultimately to six thousand jobs here at Quonset," said King.

Electric Boat currently employs more than 25-hundred people. The average wage is more than 50-thousand dollars, not including benefits.

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